The Bane of Comedy’s Existence: a Q&A with James Vergon
With a wit as dry as hay, and a heart of pure gold, James Vergon discusses his life as a super-comedian, a super-dad and a supervillain in this week’s Q&A with Laughs Out Loudly.
James Vergon: Well, thank you so much for this opportunity, I appreciate it.
Laughing Out Loudly: Oh my gosh! Thank you for doing it, too. I’m excited to learn more about you and what you do. So, first of all, how’s your day going?
JV: My day is going awesome. I’m here with my fiance and we’re just having a lazy Saturday, just the way I like it.
LOL:Nice, and what does a lazy Saturday look like for you?
JV: Well, I usually have my kids. They’re with their mother this weekend so a lazy Saturday for me is hanging out in my pajamas, watching videos, eating food and not going out anywhere.
LOL: Nice that sounds about right to me.
JV: That’s what we like to do. We’re just lazy bums. It’s beautiful here in Santa Cruz, though. Not too hot or too cold.
LOL: Yeah I love that about Santa Cruz. Are you from there originally?
JV: I consider myself from Santa Cruz. I’ve lived here since 1980. I moved here with my mom from Fresno when I was five or six. And I’m 43 now, so I’ve been here a long time.
LOL: So, did the Santa Cruz comedy scene exist when you were five?
JV: No it did not — it may have existed in some form, but I only knew about it starting last year — last year this month. I actually just had my one year anniversary doing stand up.
LOL: Oh wow! So you’re a comedy baby then.
JV: I am, I am. I’ve got one year under my belt and I’ve enjoyed every day of it.
LOL: Well, that’s great — so in Santa Cruz you’ve been doing it a year, but have you participated in other [comedy scenes]?
JV: I haven’t, but throughout my life I’ve been told I should be a comedian. I have a pretty dry wit, and a quick sense of humor — quick and sick sense of humor.
LOL: Sick?
JV: Yep, quick and slick.
LOL: (Laughs) That’s a good slogan.
JV: And, last year I thought, “You know, I’m going to look into this” And one of my son’s friends, his mother did stand up, so I asked her, “How do I get into this” and she put me in touch with the Santa Cruz Comedy Coalition (SCCC). My first set was at The Poet and The Patriot on a Monday night, and it’s been great. I’ve had really bad sets, I’ve had really good sets, but overall I’ve enjoyed the experience.
LOL: And how was that first set? Do you remember what it was like?
JV: It wasn’t entirely as bad as I thought it would be. I had some jokes that made people laugh. I had some jokes I wish I didn’t say, and then I had some jokes that just went flat. But everybody just starting out has to have their first time, and that was my first time. And, fortunately my mother filmed it, so I get relive my horrible first time.
LOL: Well, we all gotta start somewhere. And now you’ll always get to look back and say “Remember when…” You know, when you have your Comedy Central special.
JV: Yeah, right. Everybody has that “When I get my Comedy Central (CC) special I’ll do X, Y, and Z. There are a lot of funny people in the SCCC that are a lot funnier than I am that I’d love to see have their own Netflix or CC special. I am in no way close to that yet, but I’m learning and I’m loving it with the great community we have here.
LOL: Sure, and what’s something new that you’ve discovered in your learning process that you didn’t really know existed before in comedy?
JV: That every night is completely different. I’ve been doing the comedy circuit here in Santa Cruz. On Monday it’s the Poet, on Tuesday it’s Bocci’s Cellar, Wednesday it’s Rosie McCann’s, and Thursday it’s the Blue Lagoon and Sunday’s it’s the Blue Lounge. So, what I’ve noticed is you’re not going to have the same vibe with the same audience at every show. Every show is different. Somedays you get a good vibe from the audience, and your jokes fall flat, and then somedays the audience isn’t really with it and your jokes are on fire. Somedays both work awesomely. But you never know until you get up there what it’s going to be like.
LOL: Can you describe one of the best sets you’ve ever had?
JV: It was one of my first times doing comedy at the Blue Lounge, which was also I believe Jon Rhinehart’s first time doing comedy. He started about a week after I did and he brought a bunch of people there to see his set. Usually the Blue Lounge isn’t very popular on Sunday nights, but that night it was, and they were into it, laughing at everything. So, that felt great. Then, the next night I tried to do the same set again to a different crowd, a different vibe and it just felt different.
It’s like fishing. You throw the pole out there and you see what you get.
LOL: And on that note of a not-so-great set, can you describe your worst experience on stage?
JV: Oh, I’ve had quite a few. The thing with comedy is that you come up with a joke that you think is hilarious. You can’t wait to tell this joke, and you tell it. It comes out exactly how you want it to and there’s crickets. So, it’s a real mirror and the only way you can practice is by going to open mics. You can’t practice in front of a mirror, and you can only tell your fiance the joke so many times before she just gets tired of hearing your material. So the only way you can really practice is in front of an audience. So it’s a learning experience. It’s all a learning experience.
LOL: And what’s your style? Do you have a schtick?
JV: I try to keep my jokes short. Some comedians are good at telling stories. I found out through trial and error that I am not good at telling story jokes. I’m better at telling quick, rapid fire.
LOL: Are you kind of like Monty Python? That kind of dry wit?
JV: I grew up watching Monty Python, that was a big influence on me. I grew up watching Python, Johnny Carson, David Letterman. There was no CC back then. If you wanted to see comedians, you had to watch Carson and Letterman, and they would introduce these comedians and that’s how you would see them. So, I loved watching those shows all the time. I know that wasn’t quite your question, but that’s something that came to mind.
LOL: No, I appreciate it, it’s interesting. And as someone who’s seen the evolution of comedy over the years, what do you think of it back then versus now? What do you miss and what do you like that’s happened?
JV: I’m not a comedy expert by any means, but I do miss seeing comedians do really well and getting a good response [on a talk show] and then the host of the talk show invites them over to sit on their couch, and then the next thing you know that [comedian] is on commercials or in shows or movies and it escalates from there. I don’t know that there are as many opportunities these days because there’s such a saturation of different shows.
LOL: I feel similarly with shows in general right now. For example, I’ll watch Netflix, or go to watch Netflix, rather, and I’ll spend the hour I would have watched two shows searching for a show because there’s just so many to choose from. It’s also true in that everyone is famous now, it’s like that Warhol quote, “In the future, everyone is going to be famous for 15 minutes.” And I think it’s true and it’s supersaturated as you were saying. And, at the same time, it is also really cool that it is so available to so many more folks than it used to be — so there is a silver lining, I suppose.
JV: Yeah, there’s comedy channels on TV, there’s comedy channels on satellite radio, there’s podcasts. There’s just a lot of places that serve your interest, whether it’s comedy or fishing or whatever you into. There’s just more outlets to get your fix of whatever you’re interested in. And, with comedy, I’ve tried it as different characters. I tried a few times doing a set as Bane, from Batman Rises — you know, the guy with the mask. That was interesting for sure. Some people loved it, some people hated it. One drawback about doing comedy in a mask is that you sound [muffled] and it doesn’t pick up very well on the mic. So, you’ll get a lot of people in the back going “Uh, I didn’t hear you said.” But the people in the front were loving it. So, yeah I like to try new things. I don’t just go up there and do stand up.
LOL: Can you provide context for the Bane joke?
JV: Well, it wasn’t just a single joke. I went up as Bane. I had the entire Bane costume. So, I had the Bane pants and the Bane shirt, and the vest and the jacket and the boots and the mask and I just went up and said, “Bane doesn’t do villain work anymore, he’s had hard times. He’s been couchsurfing, so he’s trying some standup comedy to pass the time. So, just taking it from that angle. Just the fact that a super evil villain would try to change his life through standup comedy I thought was just hilarious. The first time I did it it got a lot of good laughs.
LOL: That’s so innovative, a great idea. I feel like I could read a comic book about that almost.
JV: It’s funny, after that set actually I was told that other comedians had done it before better than I have — and I looked it up and…yeah. There’re a lot of people who’ve done the “Bane comedy thing.” I don’t think I was plagerizing because I didn’t know about it before, so I didn’t mean to step on anybody’s toes. I just had this costume that I spent a lot of money on. It was in the closet and I went “You know? This would give me an excuse to wear the costume and try it out as a character.” And I thought it went pretty well.
LOL: I feel like that happens a lot though in creative work. People think that what they’re writing is original but there tends to be similarities because as humans we’re all kind of going through the human experience so of course we’re going to describe it similarly in some aspects. And we’re also ingesting a lot of the same stimulation — we’re watching the same movies, we’re doing this the same — so even if we live in different places we’re going to have similar insights.
JV: The jokes I told weren’t the same jokes that they told. I just wrote down some corny-ass jokes, and people were loving it. Let’s see if I can remember any for you.
Nope, drawing a blank. They’re written down upstairs somewhere. But, trust me, they’re hilarious.
LOL: (Laughs) I believe you. So, you were mentioning a little bit earlier that you really liked watching Carson and Letterman. Are there any other folks that are big influences for you?
JV: Yeah, a lot of comedians they had on the show — people’s first time on TV, like Ellen Degeneres. Her first time was on Carson. David Letterman even, his first time was on Carson in [1978]. Same thing with Gary Shanley and Jerry Seinfeld. Roseanne Barr. All the people that are around today, they got their first crack on Letterman and Carson and it’s great to see them.
And influences on me right now? I don’t know if I have any — I like Mitch Hedberg’s comedy. RIP Mitch. I like Jerry Seinfeld. I like a lot of different styles. I don’t have a specific comedian where I could say “This is the guy.” But, just a whole bunch.
LOL: And when you’re not up on stage making people laugh, or in a costume, what do you do?
JV: Currently I’m doing the Mr. Mom thing. I get my kids during the day, then I drop them off at school and pick them up from school. My ex and I exchange them on the kids see both parents on the weekends everyday just about.
LOL: That’s wonderful.
JV: Just being a dad is what I’ve been doing besides the comedy thing. And when the kids take off at night that’s my time to go to a comedy gig.
LOL: That’s wonderful and a really underappreciated job, to be just a parent in general.
JV: Thank you, I appreciate it.
LOL: I think I saw this thing on my Facebook feed that said stay-at-home parents are actually worth $100,000 according to what their income could be for the work they do that they’re not getting paid for. So, it’s a big job.
And when you are taking the nights off to do your thing, which venue is your favorite. If any of the venues are reading this, I don’t want to start a war or anything. But —
JV: Right, right. I’ll take you through the typical week starting Monday. Monday it’s a well established comedy show at the poet and the patriot at 8pm. It’s been happening there for about three years now so we get a lot of people coming just for the show who’ve known about it and then we get people who haven’t known there’s a show but just show up anyway. That’s usually a really good crowd. For the most part. Unless there’s all just comedians in the room, which happens.
Then Tuesday’s is Bocci’s Cellar. You can’t really stumble into Bocci’s. It’s kind of an out of the way place, it’s not too far but you have to drive there for sure, so there’s not many people there. Maybe there’s a few people at the bar and you’re trying to take their attention away from the game they’re watching. Sometimes it’s pretty populated. It’s kinda like a rollercoaster. If Monday was the top of the roller coaster, Bocci’s is a bit like heading down the hill. \
Wednesday’s is Rosie McCann’s which is a nice room, definitely for doing comedy in the back there. We get a whole gambit of crowds there, between packed to, again, just a room full of comedians that are silently judging you. I feel more pressure in a room full of comedians. When there’s a room full of strangers there, that haven’t seen your set 8,000 times, I feel a lot more comfortable about it.
LOL: Sure, I imagine it to be like cooking for a group of chefs rather than people who are just hungry.
JV: Right — and Thursday is the Blue Lagoon show, and that show’s been around for over 10 years. DNA has been hosting that show for about 10 years. It’s a big room. It’s definitely an experience to go in there, but you have to be asked up on stage. You can’t just show up to the Blue Lagoon, be a newby and say “Hey, can I get on and do five minutes?” You actually have to be doing the comedy circle for awhile before you’re asked to go up there. So, it took me a few months of doing the comedy circle and setting up the room at the Blue Lagoon to finally get asked up there. And my first time was crazy — Like, “Woah I’m up here!” I did my jokes and some people laughed and I had a great time.
LOL: So you’re VIP is what you’re telling me.
JV: Right. And there’s not another show in Santa Cruz until Sunday at the Blue Lounge. And Sunday nights at 9pm it’s hit or miss. Sometimes there’s a lot of people in there, but most of the time people on SUnday nights are usually not out in bars, and the ones that are usually don’t have anywhere else to go. But, it’s been interesting. Again, every place is different.
LOL: Well, that sounds like a pretty good week. Hit or miss but ultimately pretty good.
JV: I’m very fortunate to live in a place with so many open mics. We have people coming from all over — Monterey, Salinas, Carmel — that just don’t have the open mics we do here in Santa Cruz.
LOL: And besides the proximity and easy-access of the venues, what’s you favorite part about comedy and in the comedy scene in Santa Cruz?
JV: My favorite part is seeing someone do an awesome set. Or something funny happens to the point where it’s infectious. One person starts laughing, and then someone else starts laughing — I mean how can you have a bad time at a comedy show? Maybe that’s why we’re almost addicted to it. We fear bad times so we stay in places that make you laugh and smile.
LOL: Yeah, I feel like that’s inherent in a comedian is seeing the funny side of most things, or trying to anyway.
JV: Yeah, and making a great new group of friends. I’ve had good and bad sets. I’ve seen others have good and bad sets. Bnd it’s really fun to see when everything clicks for everybody.
LOL: You seem very positive, but I also want to know if you have a least favorite part about comedy?
JV: Bombing hard. You have these jokes in your head and think “these are just perfect, everyone’s going to love these” and you say ’em and nobody loves those. It’s a reality check. But, you need that. Any feedback is good feedback. So you take that and it’s like molding something, you take it away, mold it, and see if people like it better a different way.
LOL: Yeah, that’s how I feel when I tweet. LIke, why did no one like my tweet?
So, any last thoughts? Anything you’d like the world to know before we end?
JV: Bane my be coming through town again in the next few weeks. So, keep your fingers crossed for that.
You can catch James and his comrades in Santa Cruz at open mics throughout the week. For more information visit www.standupsantacruz.com
